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Memory and Postwar MemorialsDoing Memory in Public: Postapartheid Memorial Space as an Activist Project

Memory and Postwar Memorials: Doing Memory in Public: Postapartheid Memorial Space as an Activist... [After decades of white minority rule in South Africa democratization brought with it a wave of commemorative activities to give voice to dissident histories and memories silenced during apartheid. Yet, what happens when an insurgent past is put on display in a museum? Who decides how to represent histories of national conflict, violence, and resistance? What obligations do postconflict memory projects have to museological conventions? What obligations do they have to those they claim to represent? This chapter is about the nature and limits of museums as public spaces where past atrocities are confronted and mobilized to situate, articulate, and authenticate claims about contemporary social life. The democratization of public historical space is as much about the content of the new or revised narratives as it is about how and who produces the content. In examining how these dissident histories become mainstream through new public culture institutions, I expose the activist impulses guiding this process. I look at two projects—one closely tied to the African National Congress (ANC) and the other a more grassroots initiative—that grew out of agitation against the apartheid order and as a result of deliberation on how to grapple with its legacies. The first project is Freedom Park in Pretoria (or Tshwane), a state-legislated memorial project with origins in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Memory and Postwar MemorialsDoing Memory in Public: Postapartheid Memorial Space as an Activist Project

Part of the Studies in European Culture and History Book Series
Editors: Silberman, Marc; Vatan, Florence
Autry, Robyn
Memory and Postwar Memorials — Oct 29, 2015
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17 pages

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References (9)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2013
ISBN
978-1-349-46574-3
Pages
137 –154
DOI
10.1057/9781137343529_8
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[After decades of white minority rule in South Africa democratization brought with it a wave of commemorative activities to give voice to dissident histories and memories silenced during apartheid. Yet, what happens when an insurgent past is put on display in a museum? Who decides how to represent histories of national conflict, violence, and resistance? What obligations do postconflict memory projects have to museological conventions? What obligations do they have to those they claim to represent? This chapter is about the nature and limits of museums as public spaces where past atrocities are confronted and mobilized to situate, articulate, and authenticate claims about contemporary social life. The democratization of public historical space is as much about the content of the new or revised narratives as it is about how and who produces the content. In examining how these dissident histories become mainstream through new public culture institutions, I expose the activist impulses guiding this process. I look at two projects—one closely tied to the African National Congress (ANC) and the other a more grassroots initiative—that grew out of agitation against the apartheid order and as a result of deliberation on how to grapple with its legacies. The first project is Freedom Park in Pretoria (or Tshwane), a state-legislated memorial project with origins in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).]

Published: Oct 29, 2015

Keywords: Activist Impulse; African National Congress; Collective Narrative; Museum Staff; Coloured Community

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